African pride, narrated story-wise, depicts a strong society

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We, as Africans may disagree with one another on whether we are a strong entity. Inside us, we know we are, but we may take time to admit this fact, simply because many tend to give higher scores to the white society.

We do not want to be misunderstood on this, and yet we feel it must be said. Africans are very intelligent people, but of course we do not mean all are, and we would shine better world-wide only if we were able to be united.

When one reads about Kenyans or for that matter, Africans who express themselves physically, one will freeze but then again, it may be necessary to be loud and send a message across when those supposed to pay attention do not do so and we mean in public arenas not domestic.

Last Monday in one local bar in Oslo, a Kenyan decided to send a loud message to a mzungu who, intentionally of course, had become terroristic because he wants to be part and parcel of Kenyan politics and the coming elections, simply because he had married a Kenyan woman years ago, a marriage that stagnated probably due to Norwegian cold winter. For him, having married a Kenyan, so he thought, was a key automatically opening everything to do with Kenya and the Kenyans.

It is like simply saying to the Kenyans, if I could get your sister and do what I wanted with her, then who is a Kenyan to question my political affiliation - I am a Mzungu and with a little uncultured Kiswahili loudly pronounced - “mimi ni mzungu na mimi ni bwana.”

This kind of behaviour reminds many of slavery time, but then again, we do not think that fist throwing is the answer to solve problems and it must be condemned. We have to be mature even after some alcohol has visited our system.

The drama started when the Norwegian and the Kenyan were not able to agree on issues that interest both of them, and in a split moment the Kenyan man, short sized and roundly build body-wise, followed the Norwegian man who had gone out to smoke and warned him to stop his terroristic behaviour, telling him to apologise unconditionally, if he did not wish to get unnecessary blows.

When the white Norwegian decided not to heed the advice as requested, he found himself standing on one leg screaming to passersby asking for their intervention in an effort to get his other leg released which was at the time being held shoulder high by the Kenyan.

Surprisingly, the whites - Norwegians did not listen to him and instead smiled and walked away leaving the helpless Norwegian already forced by the Kenyan to continue negotiating for his leg to be released by the Kenyan who adamantly refused to let go.

After a few minutes, the bartender came to his rescue after hearing loud screams from outside his bar.

The two men, that’s the Kenyan and the Norwegian went in the bar and continued to consume the alcohol that they had already purchased earlier before their strength testing match took place.

It was interesting to watch their behaviour thereafter, because both of them chose to drink their beers quietly without any more direct eyeing at one another.

That is why Clay Onyango’s advice is very important because it sends a good message to many on what to do, when, and how after his own friend in Sweden recently was nostril-blocked by one fist executor in a Kenyan party .

By Korir

Published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no, tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525

God bless, winter at long last for Norwegians to have fun skiing

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Winter is finally arriving across Norway.

PHOTO: TOR RICHARDSEN/SCANPIX

Norwegians have spent most of the winter complaining about the lack of snow and skiing, but now bitterly cold weather is on the way.

“Parts of inland eastern Norway must prepare for temperatures below -20C (-4F) as the weekend approaches,” Jan Erik Johnsen at the Meteorological Institute told Aftenposten.no. Johnsen expects temperatures in Oslo and the mountains in southern Norway to hover around -15 to -20C (+5 to -4F).Temperatures will drop across the country south of the Arctic Circle, but will rise slightly in the region north of the Arctic Circle. Parts of southern Norway got a quick reintroduction to real winter weather with 10-15 centimeters (6.2-9.3 inches) of snow on Tuesday, and the southern region of the country will continue to see most of the snowfall in coming days.

Johnsen said that this amount of snow could fall again and that powerful winds would dominate on the southern coast, causing large drifts.

Johnsen said the weather change was due to a combination of few clouds and the production of large amounts of cold air spreading across Norway the rest of the week.

By Solrun Dregelid and Jonathan Tisdall

*”/”*Lifted and published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no, tel+47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525. source.aftenpostenENG

“Norway must make its social support systems worse to stop making it so rewarding to be out of work”, argues Prof Salvanes

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A professor renews the argument that Norway must make its social support systems worse to stop making it so rewarding to be out of work.

Professor Kjell Gunnar Salvanes believes not working pays too well. PHOTO: NHH

“It is simply too favorable to be out of work,” argues Professor Kjell Gunnar Salvanes at the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration.Salvanes told financial newspaper Dagens Næringliv (DN) that as much as 25 percent of the employable population between the ages of 18 and 67 are not in work, having opted for early retirement deals, disability benefits or are in rehabilitation.

“The great challenge for the Norwegian economy is the great segment of employable people who choose to opt out of working life,” Salvanes said, and he claims this is because the difference is not rewarding enough.

“The social schemes are, as the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development) has noted, far too good in Norway. This is a structural problem that Norway simply must solve,” Salvanes told DN.

There are many job openings in the Norwegian labor market now, and not enough unemployed to fill the positions. The number of Norwegians who must work to finance those out of work is steadily decreasing.

Salvanes urges politicians to take up the challenge, even though changing beneficial schemes could clearly hurt political popularity.

“But there is no way around it,” Salvanes told the newspaper.”*

 

By Anders Hagen and Jonathan Tisdall

*”/”*Lifted and Published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no, tel +47 932 99 739 or +47 6300 2525. source.aftenpostenENG

Betting in Norway is growing by the day and destroying lives

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*”Norway’s top research group will try to determine what percentage of the population is addicted to gambling as the amount of money spent on games of chance spirals upward.  

The Lottery Board finances studies of gambling addiction and now SINTEF (The Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research at the Norwegian Institute of Technology) Health will do a follow-up investigation of Norwegian betting habits, science web site forskning.no reports. The former, 2002, study concluded that 49,000 people aged 15-74 were having, or had had, serious gambling problems. “Since then the gross turnover in the (registered) Norwegian gambling market has increased by over 25 percent,” said Atle Hamar, director of the Lottery Board in a press release from SINTEF. “In addition, we have gotten uncontrolled Internet gambling. The authorities want to see how this affects gambling addiction in the populace,” Hamar said.The gross turnover in regulated Norwegian gambling activities in 2002 was NOK 30 billion (USD 4.78 billion). The 2006 figures are not yet ready but in 2005 this sum had risen to NOK 42.3 billion (USD 6.74 billion). On top of this Norwegians have spent at least another NOK 4 billion on unregulated Internet games in 2005, a figure that has approximately doubled since 2003.

Now SINTEF Health will update the 2002 study and investigate new aspects, such as the effects of gambling addiction on near relatives and the possible links between Internet and computer gaming addiction and Norwegian gambling habits.

SINTEF has sent out 10,000 questionnaires to a random sampling of persons aged 16-74. The study focuses on all sorts of gambling, from lotto and lottery tickets to slot machines and Internet poker.”*

 

By Jonathan Tisdall

*”/”*Lifted and published by African Press in Norway, apn, africanpress@chello.no, tel +47 932 99739 or +47 6300 2525. source.aftenpostenENG